Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell, the goat-farming gay couple who won 21st season of 'Amazing Race.' / Robert Deutsch USAT

by Maria Puente, USA TODAY

by Maria Puente, USA TODAY

UPDATE 5:55 p.m. ET, Sunday: Madonna made news at GLAAD's annual media awards Saturday in New York when she took to the stage to present an award to TV's Anderson Cooper.

"I think they should change their stupid rules, don't you?" said Madonna, dressed in Scouting gear and speaking about the Boy Scouts' ban on gay Scouts and leaders. She presented Cooper with the Vito Russo Award, which recognizes an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equality.

ORIGINAL POST: The gay advocacy group GLAAD's annual media awards honored film director Bret Ratner, Smash, the NBC drama about producing a Broadway show, and CBS's reality series The Amazing Race, at a ceremony in New York tonight.

Also, the 24th Annual GLAAD Media Awards enlisted Madonna to present its Vito Russo Award to CNN's Anderson Cooper, who recently came out and now says he's blessed and proud to be gay. (Vito Russo, who died in 1990, was a film historian who was one of the first to raise concerns about how gays and lesbians are portrayed in the media.)

The GLAAD Awards (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) honor media for fair representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their issues.

Ratner, the director of Tower Heist, X Men:The Last Stand, Rush Hour and others, got GLAAD's inaugural Ally Award - a major comeback from the embarrassing flap last year when he joked that "Rehearsing is for fags" at a press conference and had to quit as producer of the 2012 Academy Awards ceremony.

Since then, Ratner has made amends. GLAAD officials have described Ratner as stalwart friend to the gay community who joined with the group to direct and produce a a public service announcement campaign, GLAAD Coming Out for Equality, featuring straight celebrities, athletes, musicians and politicians "coming out of the closet" as supporters of equality.

Smash, about the drama behind-the-scenes in the effort to mount a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe, features gay characters and was named outstanding drama series. In The Amazing Race, winner of the outstanding reality series award, teams of couples race around the world; last year, the 21st season, a gay couple, goat-farmers Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell, won the $1 million prize.

Other awards covered documentaries, television and print journalism and Broadway and Off Broadway theater.